Arko Epic [STORY]

[Borune]

Alright, I was looking through my computer deleting stuff I don't need anymore and I found this. I had forgotten about it completely. It was a story I wrote when I was in fifth grade for a 'Mythology Epic Writing' project we had to do using the general basis of Polyphemus the Cyclops from Greek mythology, we just had to put him in a completely different story.
Tell me what ya think. Remember: I was in fifth grade.

Once upon a time …

There was a Cyclops name Arko. He was the ruler of the hell-pit known to most as Azeroth for its Arcane magic’s. Those who lived in Azeroth had lived there since their ancestors had founded civilization in the Age of Arcane, near the start of time. These areas now nowhere near resemble the plentiful fields and societies that once covered the lands. The lands of now are covered with beasts unlike any others. Nothing here is truly living any longer. From hippogriffs to shades and undead, nothing can die because nothing is truly living and nothing can die because it isn’t truly dead. Arko is the brute immortal Cyclops who cares for these lands and the creatures who inhabit it. Azeroth is a place of much fear to outsiders with no light or grass like that of their home, this place is as though life has been ripped from the very soil of the planet. The ground is cracked all over, letting pure magma seep over the land, geysers spewing the only water the land sees. The land is constantly being pummeled by hot tephra, constantly cracking and making gaping holes for magma to spew from. Azeroth rose from the inner of the Earth during the famed God Wars. Hades was loosing power, so to regain power he expanded his kingdom, taking part of the over-world. Through out the God Wars, immortals were literally killed. Mysterious forces robbed the Gods from their immortality and other awesome abilities, the Gods were no more than mortal men at times. All immortals were totally eliminated, except for Arko of course.

Arko had received a prophecy when he had been born in the Age of Arcane, he had been told that he was to fall in history among the greatest heroes ever. At his childhood he didn’t want much of this so called ‘prophecy’. At the time there were no other immortal children so he grew up making friends with the many animals who inhabited the heavens and the over-world. He became so attached to these animals in his childhood that when he became older he continued his bonds with his sheep and cows and other animals. The little interaction that Arko got with others he spent trying to bond in any way he could, but being unable to see others often the relationships were impossible to keep. He then tended to be more of an aggressive greeter and ended up rather wanting to fight or have horse play instead of trying to bond as he had tried to do before. As Arko became older he was unable to bond with others because of his childhood, he was more of a brute, not to be called stupid but he wouldn’t be called intelligent either. He was more of an outcast as an immortal, he took animals as friends and companions over other Immortals or even regular mortals. As the ages passed he became more and more attached to his animals as they became attached to him. It seemed as though even he and the land began to connect until finally the Age of Extremity was upon them. In the prophecy it had been foretold that in that age, the prophecy would begin to fulfill itself.
The prophecy he had been told when he was a child was:

Creation Destroyed, Building The Void

Final Forever, Starts Ending In Never

Shattered All, Time Begins The Fall

Legacy Kept Secret, None To Know

Power At Worst, Mayhem Is First

Without Tri, He Will Fall, He Will Die

Because of the fact that it was so short, it was easy for him to remember it for such long a length of time. He began by making an attempt at deciphering the prophecy and trying to imagine what he was to do. The mysterious force that had gotten the gods killed was now literally tearing existence apart. The ‘sacred clay’ that all of existence had been created from was falling apart. Even the gods had been made out of this mysterious material. To Arko it seemed obvious that this fulfilled the first line of the prophecy. Existence was disappearing, thus building ‘the void’. The rest of the prophecy however, he had no idea about. Since he could not ask the oracle that he had been told the prophecy from, since all the oracles had died in the God Wars, he set out to find the cause for the mysterious disappearances of existence. Since he had recently been seeing it all around him, he looked for any clues or hints around where it had happened. He was observing the dissolving clay from a dyeing boar when he saw the famous symbol of delta (Δ). At first he thought nothing of it, just a coincidence that the clay had made the symbol as it was disappearing, this however was false. As he was observing another animal literally dissolve, he saw the symbol again just before the animal disappeared completely. He became very suspicious about this and the next time he saw the symbol, he pushed into it. Oddly enough, a large whole of Earth separated, leaving what appeared to be a fully carved tunnel, with supports and no chance of collapsing at all. This new found information made him leave his wits for a moment, he charged strait into the tunnel. As soon as his back foot was no more than an inch in the hole, it closed.

As he walked he soon realized he was in The Labyrinth. As he went winding through the Labyrinth, there was a particularly strange room, this room had a beautiful fountain with some of the most beautiful artwork that Arko had ever seen. It appeared as though the artwork contained all of history, and as he looked closer to the end, he saw himself standing next to the very fountain that was in the room. However, in the picture, the fountain was filled with water where in the room, where he was, the fountain was as dry as a bone. It looked like the fountain had never been used before. He continued to wander aimlessly from room to room, not knowing where he was going or what he was to do. He eventually came to a room with a horse in it, what seemed odd to Arko was that the horse could talk. Arko soon realized that he was Arion, a horse born from Poseidon and Demeter. Arion and Arko walked through the maze together until, finally, Arko asked why Arion was down in the Labyrinth. Arion, an intelligent horse, said that he could pose the same question to Arko. Arion said that he really had no time to chat any longer as he had to leave. Arko, no being the brightest fellow said his goodbyes and they parted ways.

Arko now alone realized that Arion had been acting very suspicious while they had been talking. Unfortunately as he entered the next room, he saw Arion lying on the ground turning into the mysterious clay. Arko quickly rushed over to help Arion, he could not however since he had no idea what to do. This time, as Arion died the sign of delta did not appear. Arko picked up some of the clay to see if he could try to help his brief friend Arion in any way.

Oddly enough, the clay pulled slightly in the direction of the door. Arko went to open the door only to find the room with the fountain, and this time it was on. As he was looking at the mosaics again, where his had been, there was a picture of a workshop and a large metal human looking thing. This time the clay was pulling towards the fountain where Arko then set the clay. He stopped to take a break and to refresh himself by drinking from the fountain. As the clay was doing nothing special, he picked it up again. As soon as I was in his hands, it began to pull towards another door. Arko continued to walk through the labyrinth, now never entering the same room again until he finally came upon a room that looked almost exactly like the one that had been painted on the wall. He was greeted by a large metal man, he assumed it was the one in the picture. Arko greeted him as Daedalus, assuming it was him, the creator of the labyrinth. This however enraged the large metal man who had what seemed more like a childish temper tantrum than how he would have expected Daedalus to have acted. The large metal man finally spit out the words, “I’m not that forgotten old man! I am his nephew, Perdix, the greatest craftsman ever!” Arko now grasping what had happened asked Perdix how he was now a large metal man when he was turned into a bird by Athena when she spared his life from Daedalus killing him by pushing him off of an extremely high tower. Perdix simply explained that before he had been changed into a bird, he had figured out how to transfer the soul of an ordinary man into an immortal by simply transferring it to a machine, just because he was a bird in body doesn’t mean he was a bird in mind, he still thought as though he was a human. Arko barely believed this, even if he was seeing it with his own eyes.

To be continued…

Thanks for reading
You get a cookie if i get constructive criticism. (Literally!)